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Dear all,

Soft Freeze
===========

Following our release calendar, we have frozen bullseye a bit [1]. That
means that from now on we expect all uploads to be small, targeted fixes
and no new source packages are allowed into bullseye. Source packages
must also no longer add or drop binary packages. All packages will have
to age at least 10 days in unstable before they are eligible for
migration (including those having autopkgtests). Quoting from the policy:

"""
Starting 2021-02-12, only small, targeted fixes are appropriate for
bullseye. We want maintainers to focus on small, targeted fixes.

[...]

Please note that new transitions, new versions of packages that are part
of (build-)essential or large/disruptive changes remain inappropriate.

[...]

Packages that are not in testing will not be allowed to migrate to
testing. This applies to new packages as well as to packages that were
removed from testing (either manually or by auto-removals).

[...]

Dropping or adding binary packages to a source package, moving binaries
between source packages or renaming source or binary packages is no
longer allowed. Packages with these changes will not be allowed to
migrate to testing. These changes are also no longer appropriate in
unstable.

Please note that packages that are in bullseye at the start of the soft
freeze can still be removed if they are buggy. This can happen manually
or by the auto-removals. Once packages are removed, they will not be
allowed to come back.

[...]

Don't upload changes to unstable that are not targeted for bullseye.
Having changes in unstable that are not targeted/appropriate for
bullseye could complicate fixes for your package and related packages
(like dependencies and reverse dependencies).
"""

State of bullseye
=================

That said, we currently believe the state of bullseye is pretty good, so
we're aiming for a record short freeze However, not all is fine.
We're pretty concerned about a couple of known RC bugs which need the
proper attention of people familiar with upgrade paths as there's
potential to leave upgrading systems unbootable and/or without a working
apt.

https://bugs.debian.org/953562 / libcrypt
https://bugs.debian.org/974552 / libcrypt
https://bugs.debian.org/972936 / libgcc-s1

We ask everybody to work on fixing the other RC bugs too.
http://deb.li/rcbugs has the list we should drive down to zero together.
Please try out upgrading your buster systems to bullseye now and report
issue you encounter.

General
=======

As always, talk to us, preferably via the bts, if you experience issues
that we need to be aware of or where you need help. Please be aware it's
now a very busy time for us, so bear with us.

Our freeze policy is at [1].

On behalf of the release team,
Paul

[1] https://release.debian.org/bullseye/freeze_policy.html#soft


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